Booker v. State

Citations

• 81 Miss. 391

Syllabus

<p>1. Criminal Law. Murder. Right of defendant to be present during trial.</p> <p>Where, on the trial of a murder case, an important state’s witness was, by inadvertence, examined for several minutes in the absence of defendant and before he had been brought from jail, and the court upon discovering his absence stopped the proceedings, procured the prisoner’s presence, and then excluded all the evidence taken in his absence, instructing the jury to wholly disregard it, and the witness was re-examined, testifying in all substantial particulars in defendant’s presence as he had done in his absence, the defendant, upon conviction, will be entitled to a new trial, proper exceptions having been reserved.</p> <p>2. Same. Course of procedure suggested.</p> <p>In such case the court should have offered defendant the entry of a mistrial and award of a venire de novo.</p>